Maryland Woman: I Won Mega Millions

...and says $105M ticket wasn't part of co-workers' lotto pool
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 2, 2012 9:05 AM CDT
Maryland Woman: I Won Mega Millions
Mega Millions lottery tickets sit on a register at Liquorland on March 30, 2012 in Covina, California.   (Getty Images)

Not even three days have passed since the Mega Millions drawing, and already one supposed winner is embroiled in controversy: Mirlande Wilson claims she has a winning ticket, but won't split her $105 million share of the jackpot with the co-workers in her lottery pool. Wilson, 37, claims she bought her own ticket, separate from the tickets purchased with cash from other employees at a Maryland McDonald's. But, pressed for an entire day by the New York Post, Wilson's story got hazy: "I don’t know if I won. Some of the numbers were familiar. I recognized some of [them]," she said.

Wilson's predictably furious co-workers say she took their money and purchased the tickets, which were placed in an office safe. The employees claim they made a last-minute decision to purchase more tickets just before the drawing, and they say the winning ticket was in that batch—which Wilson took home—but Wilson says she chose to purchase those tickets on her own. Making the story even weirder: A clerk at the 7-Eleven where the winning ticket was sold is wary, claiming that lottery officials think a man purchased the winning ticket. And the owner of the McDonald's in question calls the story "bulls**t." Wilson says she plans to submit the ticket to officials today; the state's lotto director confirms no winning ticket has been turned in yet, reports the AP. (More Mega Millions stories.)

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